Jan. 6 rioters seek imprisonment at low-security compound notorious for contraband: journalist

Some of the Jan. 6 attackers, including the Proud Boys, are requesting to be sent to Fort Dix to serve out their sentence – prompting one national security analyst to ask why.

CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane reported this week that former Navy reservist Hatchet Speed would be sent to the low-security New Jersey correctional facility to serve out the rest of his sentence through New Year's Day 2029.

Dominic Pezzola, the Proud Boys member who first breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, also requested that he serve his sentence at the facility, WUSA reported.

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The reason for the request, speculated national security journalist Marcy Wheeler, could be a robust operation to deliver cell phones, drugs and other items via drone to the prison.

Reports detail major contraband operations orchestrated by inmates within the federal lockup and including directing drone flights to bring deliveries into the compound at night.

The smuggling has been the subject of a Justice Department investigation that led to arrests.

"Smuggled phones have been a longtime concern at the prison, where inmates used them to coordinate deliveries of contraband — including more cellphones — via late-night drone flights between October 2018 and June 2019," the Courier Post reported.

A former inmate was among those arrested for helping coordinate the acquisition of the items. A current inmate, Johansel Moronta, was also charged by the Justice Department connected to the scheme.